What does the Antonov have to do with Skol, a Brazilian beer?
According to Leonardo Alexander, who worked for Ambev (The group that owns Skol) for 20 years. Everything!
In his LinkedIn, he shared:
“The year is 1993, I am 24 years old, and the purchasing department sends me a mission: launch the Latão (Commercial name of Skol’s 500mL can) in 30 days…
The obstacle is: This specific package size is not manufactured in Brazil yet.
We also know we cannot find the specific size in the United States because the closest standard package has the size of 16 oz, which is 473 mL. We need a rounded 500, the same as the slogan.
The slogan is “A cerveja que desce redondo”. In a literal translation from Portuguese, it would be “The beer that goes down rounded”, meaning that it goes down very easily.
Therefore, I board a plane to Europe to visit four different factories. In seven days I visit one in Austria, two in Germany and one in Sweden. The deal is closed with the Swedes, starting with 400 thousand cans.
The name Skol derives from the Scandinavian word skål, meaning cheers.
I can’t even sleep well in the freezing winter of Malmö, in the south of Sweden, where the PLM Group factory is located.
Five days later, the cans are ready. That’s beautiful! I can relax a bit, but I still have to ship them to Brazil.
In the meantime, I call Ambev’s Central Administration and tell them the good news: the cans are ready!
I watch the ship depart from Hamburg, in Germany, to Santos, in Brazil. Estimated time of arrival: 20 to 25 days. It wouldn’t work, we would miss the deadline.
I negotiate the chartering with Antonov via Panalpina and I get not only one, but two Antonovs.
Malmö stops on the day that two of the biggest airplanes in the world land on its airport’s runway. In spite of the freezing cold, it’s crowded with people watching. It’s an event. My heart is racing at 200 km/h.
The planes depart! And I run to catch a plane and return to Brazil. Headed to Galeão airport, Rio de Janeiro.
I arrive in Brazil, but not the Antonovs. Should they have landed already? My heart is racing at 300 km/h now.
“Léo, they were held back in the Caribbean, they are lacking the authorization to enter the Brazilian air space.”
I can’t believe it!
I run to the Santos Dumont airport but headed to the building next to it where the COMAR III (Third Air Force Command) is located.
I talk to the Brigadier, begging him to allow the Antonovs to land in Rio de Janeiro. I was almost on my knees.
Four hours later… The authorization is granted. Yes!
And on the following day, at the head of the Rio de Janeiro International Airport’s runway, holding a borrowed camera, I record the landing of the first and the second Antonovs.
The customs clearance happens in record time: One day!
Ten trucks heading to the factory in Jacareí, São Paulo. And myself, super happy, following them in my own car.
They arrive at the factory. The production starts a bit slow, but soon it starts getting faster and the four thousand cans are produced and launched into the market in only 21 days.
Phew!! Mission accomplished.”
You can check the original post on LinkedIn here.
Leonardo no longer has access to the video of the landings anymore since it was kept by Ambev. He’s also uncertain about the details of the planes but he’s sure that at least one of the planes was the AN-124.
Given that the AN-225 needs at least 3500m of runway and the airport of Malmö has a runway of 2800m, it seems unlikely that one of the planes was the giant.
Skol
Skol is one of the most popular beers in Brazil and it’s licensed and produced by AmBev, a company of the Anheuser-Busch InBev group.
Remember
In one of the episodes of Apple TV’s show See, you can hear a person selling Skol in the background. The man shouts:
Skol, Skol, Skol latão aqui, aqui!
Apple never commented on it. But Skol didn’t miss the chance to advertise and even claimed they had sent a load of Skol to Apple in California.
